Bicultural Vida

Is your baby creating Spanglish verbs? Mine does! As they develop their bilingual vocabulary it’s really fun to see how they conjugate verbs in both languages. Do you have one to share? Here are some of our SpanglishBaby verbos shared by a few of our SpanglishBaby Playground amigas: Ligia:  “corring” en vez de “corriendo” y “canting” en lugar de “cantando” son algunas de las palabras que mi hijo ha dicho. Audrey: “My daughter always says “sendar” for “mandar” or “enviar.”Read More ...

There is never a dull moment in this bilingual home of ours. Each day my husband or papi is getting better and expanding his vocabulary to more than just “caca” or “leche,” and my son incorporates words he has heard me say into his conversations with me — things he would only get from me. Not my mamá or his tata. For instance, when Lucía was crying he said “me carga cuando llora la Lucía.” Carga being the new word, one that I use probably tooRead More ...

Living in a monolingual household with no family near by, in an environment with less diversity than I care to admit, there are days where I utter not a syllable in Spanish. With my oldest child, now 3 years old, Spanish immersion was regimented with specific rules — I cooked in Spanish, I narrated the TV in Spanish. But now, with two kids under 3, there are no rules. There is only survival. And even in English, some days I hardlyRead More ...

One of my favorite things about belonging to the SpanglishBaby community is the opportunity to meet other families who are also raising bilingual and bicultural kids. I have met online friends and local friends through SpansglishBaby Playground where families have been organizing local playgroups all over the nation, from South Jersey to Orlando, from Philly to Colorado you can find local groups wanting to meet, play and speak Spanish! Find your local Playground and join us today! Tri State Mamas:Read More ...

This week, my daily news surfing brought me to this article from NPR about the unclear future of the Spanish language in the U.S. The author, Luis Clemens, challenges the idea that the growing number of Latinos in America automatically means there will be more Spanish speakers going forward. Those of us in the middle of child rearing in more than one language are familiar with how much work and conscious planning it takes to achieve the end of producingRead More ...

One of the greatest perks of being a blogger is all of the connections and new people you meet that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Since starting here at SpanglishBaby my network of other like-minded bilingual parents has grown and we have all been able to connect on different levels yet at the core is desire to raise our children speaking a second language. A few months ago I received an email from a fellow Latina mamá who had been readingRead More ...

  Dear Mija, When your daddy and I got married we wrote our own vows. Vows are kind of like promises that are deeply personal, but you say in front of family and friends at a wedding. On that day in my white dress and lace veil, holding your dad’s hand, I told him: I promise to respect your heritage and your culture and one day teach our children about the beauty found in our differences. We made lots ofRead More ...

It’s been over a week since my daughter and I returned from our trip to El Salvador to visit family and to meet Brenda, the girl we sponsor through Save the Children. Not a day goes by that we don’t talk about her, plan what we’re sending her next, and pray for her and her family. The connection to her has been that deep for both Camila and I. I loved sharing the pictures and the story of why weRead More ...